1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and methods for enhancing the play of golf. In particular, the system and methods hereof uses artificial reality to provide visual information to a golfer.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,855,638 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/624,998; 11/875,414; 12/111,688; and 12/146,907 relate generally to viewing people, places, and events, such as sporting events, using positioning and artificial reality to improve the event viewing experience. While these applications address how artificial reality can be used in golf, the present application addresses the golf use case in detail and the many features and functions that are enabled where the “user” of artificial reality is the player participant. Use of GPS as an aid in the play of golf is known, see, e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,564,093; 5,438,518; and 7,118,498. (All patents and publications cited herein are incorporated by reference.) Such golf aids use a plan view of a hole or golf course or portions of a hole. Such golf aids tell distances to features, such as hazards or green or cup using a GPS position referenced to a point-of-interest (“POI”) database. While a plan view is particularly useful for shot planning, such views can be confusing during use on the golf course and typically have limited functions in order to comply with USGA rules for use in handicap computation.
Commercial applications of dedicated golf handheld devices are available from SkyHawke, Callaway or Garmin. Further, many companies, such as Golflogix and Golfscape, have golf assistance software applications for smart phones and tablet computers that have a built-in GPS. Commercial applications of augmented reality exist such as Layar, Wikitude, Junaio, Sekai Camera and others which use augmented reality to aid finding information about points of interest. See, e.g., www.layar.com, www.wikitude.org/en/, and www.junaio.com.